“Away from home our fans are fantastic, I’d call them the hardcore fans. But at home, they’ll have their few drinks and probably their prawn sandwiches, and they don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch.”
Roy Keane’s post-match comments in 2000 became infamous for digging out certain sections of the Old Trafford crowd.
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Yet fast-forward almost a quarter of a century and those fans wanting to spend money on a meal and a few drinks in a stadium are precisely the ones Premier League clubs are keen to attract.
As Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Manchester United’s new co-owner, put it last month: “The future of football is not going to be you just go to a football match, you leave and you go home. The future — which they recognise at the Bernabeu and the Nou Camp — is that you provide more entertainment, it’s more of a campus. You have a bite to eat, you watch something on the screens, you do a bit of shopping.
“If people, instead of spending two quid on a burger at half-time, stay there for a couple of hours and spend £15, it’s win-win. The fans benefit because there’s stuff to do. The club benefits because they can buy better players.”
This gradual shift towards an American model where clubs value “dwell time” in a stadium — half of the 20 Premier League teams are now part or fully owned by Americans or U.S. companies — comes at a time of increased tension between supporters and clubs over rising ticket prices.
In recent weeks, protests have been staged at Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Fulham, with fans accusing clubs of exploiting their loyalty during the cost of living crisis.
So with ticket prices under the spotlight, how does the cost and availability of a Premier League game compare to other sports?
Premier League ticket prices have become a divisive issue as clubs toe a fine line between the need to appease a local and loyal fanbase while trying to entice a more global following and bring in extra revenue.
For many supporters, it increasingly feels as if the latter is winning out and the hike in costs is a tax on loyalty.
At the end of March, many Tottenham fans turned their back on the match against Luton Town on 65 minutes in protest at the club’s plans to remove concessions for new senior season-ticket holders aged 65 or over — and reduce the discount for those presently holding such concessions — from the 2024-25 season.
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Tottenham already sell the second-most expensive season ticket in the country. A day later, at the Etihad Stadium, the Manchester City fans group, the 1894, unfurled a banner saying: “Record profits but record prices. Stop exploiting our loyalty!” City are the world’s second-richest club according to Deloitte, posting record revenues of €826million (£706m; $885m) last season.
Earlier this season, Fulham fans protested before their match against Manchester United after the club charged £160 ($200) for seats in the Riverside Stand, while overall adult season ticket prices jumped 18 per cent in a year and now total as much as £3,000 (the most expensive in the country).
This came after 17 of the 20 Premier League clubs announced season-ticket increases for this campaign. For next season, Arsenal have raised season tickets by six per cent in the lower tier and four per cent in the upper tier (ranging from £1,073 to £2,050). Tottenham also increased season ticket prices by six per cent (ranging from £856 to £2,367), while Manchester United and Manchester City’s are going up by five per cent.
Brighton season tickets are rising between five and eight per cent, Brentford up 10 per cent, and Burnley’s by more than that. On Merseyside, Everton and Liverpool are also putting up costs while some Aston Villa fans in the Holte End are having their seats removed to make way for hospitality.
At last night’s Europa League match against Atalanta, there were no flags on the Kop in protest against the two per cent rise in the cost of Liverpool’s season tickets and members’ tickets next season.
Fans feel frustrated as, according to Deloitte, matchday takings account for only 18 per cent of revenue for the world’s 20 richest clubs, far less than commercial (42 per cent) and broadcast (40 per cent) areas, with ticket prices an even smaller fraction of that.
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“More and more fans are being made to feel like a customer instead of a supporter,” Dominic Rosso, vice-chair of the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust, said. “It feels that football is being stripped of its soul.”
Wary of profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), clubs are looking for ways to cash in on lucrative high-end or premium tickets. For their match against Manchester United on April 4, Chelsea offered fans the chance to sit behind the home dugout for £5,000. Manchester City offer an ‘autograph’ package for £4,200 for a match that includes a meet-and-greet with a club legend, stadium tour and the chance to see players from the glass tunnel. West Ham have a £4,000 ticket that includes a helicopter ride over the capital.
For next season — and perhaps a sign of shifting times — Manchester City have created a flexi-gold ticket, which keeps a seat for a £150 membership fee, then gives the option of picking matches, paying full general admission prices.
Away from season tickets, the price to watch a regular Premier League match is also going up.
At present, home tickets cost somewhere in the region of £45-£60. However, especially at bigger clubs, they are extremely difficult to buy — and tend to float around in a close and trusted network of match-going family or friends. Away tickets are capped at £30; a hard-won concession fought for by fans.
The most expensive non-hospitality ticket at Liverpool, for example, is £60. At Manchester City, it is £75. The cheapest ticket in the division is for a very restricted (and for those with a local ‘L’ postcode) £9 ticket at Anfield, while the priciest (non-hospitality) is a £240 ticket at Chelsea’s plush Westview area.
Buying a paid membership (around £30-£60 a year) is essential to purchasing a ticket at many clubs, particularly the biggest names. At these clubs, tickets rarely, if ever, go on general sale to non-members for Premier League games.
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In La Liga, the average lowest price of a ticket is €37 while the highest is €91. The league’s most recognisable names — Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid — have memberships but around half do not, and it’s generally easier to buy a ticket for a match in Spain. Serie A in Italy tickets can be even cheaper (as little as €10 at Empoli, to around €40 at Lazio) but it’s tough to purchase tickets at iconic grounds such as San Siro for AC Milan and Inter Milan, and the Allianz Arena for Juventus, where there’s always high demand.
As with most of the bigger clubs in England, tickets to watch a popular Bundesliga teams (a league known for its relative affordability) rarely appear on general sale and are only available to season ticket holders or members. However, the cheapest season ticket in the league is €250 at Wolfsburg and the most expensive is €978 at Cologne.
This can all feel confusing to overseas fans who are often surprised by the modest price of Premier League tickets, especially when compared to some other sports, but taken aback by the lack of availability.
In American sports, the dynamic pricing structure means tickets can often be bought on the day for most games, albeit for a hefty amount.
It is against that backdrop that clubs are keen to create more of an American-style matchday experience for supporters, with Tottenham the envy of other Premier League owners.
Spurs bring in close to £6million every match, whereas their old White Hart Lane stadium would bring in on average £1m per home game. The stadium is better equipped with bars than anywhere else in the league.
They also host music concerts — they had five nights of Beyonce at the end of last season — and have a 10-year agreement to host NFL matches, with Spurs receiving a hire fee for every match. They also take a cut of the millions of pounds of food and drink revenue — roughly three times higher than it would be for a Tottenham game — from these events.
This has led to accusations Tottenham are putting the squeeze on season ticket holders as they seek to attract a more transient crowd, who are happy to spend more in the ground.
However, manager Ange Postecoglou defended the club’s approach last month when a reporter asked if tourist fans could be considered “plastic”.
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In response, he said: “That’s really harsh. I’m probably ‘plastic’ and ‘touristy’ because I came from the other side of the world, (but I was) really passionate about football, and if I could get access to see a Premier League game that was the world to me.
“So to label people ‘plastic’ or ‘tourists’… I don’t think that’s fair just because people live on the other side of the world. This football club has supporters all over the world. It has supporters all over the UK who don’t always get access to the games and we should always accommodate them.”
How does this stack up against other sports?
Much like the Premier League, the cost of watching other elite sports continues to rise, with concerns it’s becoming a preserve for the wealthy.
The cheapest ticket for England’s rugby union match against New Zealand at Twickenham on November 2 is £99 for an adult, with the most expensive £229. For England’s Six Nations campaign this year, a standard premium was £194, with the cheapest (category 4) priced at £85.
It’s a similar tale at Lord’s this summer to watch England cricket in their Test series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, with tickets costing £115 or £125 for the day. The cheapest ticket on Centre Court at Wimbledon this summer is £70 for the first two days (sat in the back six rows), rising to £275 for the women’s and men’s finals. A ground pass ticket to watch matches on the outside courts is £30.
In Formula One, a ticket to watch the first practice session at Silverstone was £50 in 2019, now it’s £169. The race itself costs £364.
Meanwhile, tickets for the Olympics athletics finals at Paris’ Stade de France this summer are €990 for the Category First seats and €690, €385, €195 or €85 for Category A-D tickets.
By comparison, in America, many sports operate “dynamic pricing models”, which work similarly to airlines and hotels.
This means prices fluctuate according to supply and demand, so you might be able to buy very cheap tickets to a low-profile fixture but if you want good seats to a big game you could end up spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars. This also means tickets can often be purchased on the day for most games.
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In the National Basketball Association (NBA), for example, there are more tickets on sale to the public, fewer season tickets and more that go on the secondary market.
Prices vary according to factors such as the opponent, seat, location and the specific package used to purchase a ticket (eg, whether it’s a single game, part of a 10-game plan or a full 41-game plan) and whether the ticket was bought on Ticketmaster or a secondary market. For example, tickets to watch the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA play-offs are currently available to buy as a ‘verified resale ticket’ with a range between $139 and $2,490.
In fact, the draw to watch generational talents such as Caitlin Clark for the Iowa Hawkeyes meant tickets for the women’s championship this year cost twice as much as the men’s on average, reaching as high as $11,000.
Meanwhile, the average ticket price in the National Football League (NFL), which has the same dynamic pricing model, was $120 last year, according to Statista, and there’s been a steady rise in cost over the last 15 years.
A separate report, by Team Marketing, estimated it would cost $631 to take a family of four to a game and buy food, two souvenirs and a parking spot. Major League Baseball (MLB) tickets increased 3.5 per cent to an average of $37 in 2023. It costs $266 to take a family to a game.
So when matched up against other sports, the Premier League may appear competitively priced.
However, as costs continue to rise and more protests are staged, there’s a sense we’re reaching a crucial junction in what some people feel is a fight for the soul of football.
(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
